RUGBY | Page 4 BASEBALL | Page 5 Australia Nationals beat Argentina levels series to fi nish with Cubs, runners-up Dodgers win Monday, October 9, 2017 FOOTBALL Muharram 19, 1439 AH France on brink GULF TIMES of World Cup, Dutch hopes all but over SPORT Page 3 FORMULA ONE Results/Standings Results and Formula One world championship standings World championship after the Japanese Grand Prix standings yesterday. Drivers 1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mer- 1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 306pts cedes) 2. Sebastian Vettel (GER) 247 307 km in 1 h 27:31.193 (average 3. Valtteri Bottas (FIN) 234 Ruthless Hamilton speed: 211 km/h) 4. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) 192 2. Max Verstappen (NED/Red 5. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 148 Bull) at 1.211 Constructors standings 3. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red 1. Mercedes-AMG 540pts, 2. Fer- Bull) at 9.679 rari 395, 3. Red Bull 303, 4. Force 4. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) India 147, 5. Williams 66, 6. Toro at 10.580 Rosso 52, 7. Haas 43, 8. Renault 5. Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Ferrari) 42, 9. McLaren-Honda 23, 10. roars to Japan win at 32.622 Sauber 5 ‘The team has done a phenomenal job, they’re just so meticulous...’ RALLYING AFP Suzuka, Japan Qatar’s Nasser ewis Hamilton romped to victory at the Japanese Grand Prix yester- edges closer to day to close in on a fourth world Ltitle after Sebastian Vettel retired with engine failure on lap four. retaining world title The Briton dominated from pole, steer- ing his Mercedes to a crushing eighth win of the year, stretching his Formula One championship lead over Vettel to 59 points with just 100 left to play for. The Briton dominated from pole, steering his Mercedes to a crush- ing eighth win of the year, stretch- ing his Formula One champion- ship lead over Vettel to 59 points with just 100 left to play for “Honestly I could only have dreamed of having this kind of gap,” said Hamilton af- ter holding off a late charge from Max Ver- stappen in Suzuka. “The team has done a phenomenal job, they’re just so meticulous so a big thank Mercedes’ British driver Lewis Hamilton (C) throws his winner’s trophy as second placed Red Bull’s Dutch driver Max Verstap- you to the guys.” pen (L) and Red Bull’s Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo (R) look on from the podium in the Formula One Japanese Grand Prix at The Red Bulls of Verstappen — who Suzuka yesterday. At bottom, Qatar’s world high-jump champ Mutaz Barshim and British distance runner Mo Farah with Formula stunned Hamilton to win in Malaysia last One driver Nico Rosberg, in Suzuka, Japan. week — and Daniel Ricciardo secured a double podium for the second successive sixth for Force India. Hamilton celebrated athlete, who was watching trackside. now it’s important to get some rest and race. Valtteri Bottas fi nished fourth in the a fourth victory in Japan and a 61st career “Max drove an outstanding race and it give my all for the last four races and see By Sports Reporter gap on leader Sebastian Loeb of second Mercedes with Kimi Raikkonen’s win with a ‘Mobot’ pose, a tribute to his got very close at the end,” said Hamilton. what happens.” Doha France to 3.46 minutes. Ferrari taking fi fth and Esteban Ocon friend Mo Farah, the Olympic champion “His car was looking so big in my mir- Ferrari, who have struggled with reli- The team running under the rors. It wasn’t a walk in the park today. ability issues since the summer break, later management of Jean-Marc For- There’s still a long way to go,” added the blamed the faulty spark plug for the car’s atar star Nasser Saleh tin has already won seven rounds Briton. loss of speed. al-Attiyah edged of the series this season and al- “Anything can happen in life so I have “The misfortune of Ferrari is unbeliev- closer to retaining his Attiyah and French navigator to keep my head down and hopefully con- able,” said Mercedes boss Toto Wolff . “But Qworld title by main- Matthieu Baumel have won six of tinue to perform like this.” Lewis drove a spectacular race.” taining his second place in the those rallies in a memorable sea- Vettel’s title hopes, meanwhile, suff ered The warmer conditions were supposed OiLibya Rally of Morocco, the son thus far. a potentially fatal blow with four races left to favour the Ferraris but Hamilton ruth- 10th and penultimate round of Al-Attiyah and Baumel have following nightmare start from the front lessly converted his record-breaking pole the FIA World Cup for Cross- won the last three Moroccan row. Ferrari mechanics worked frantically position by rapidly taking a stranglehold Country rallies. rallies but face fi erce competi- on the grid to fi x a spark plug issue before on the 53-lap race. The Qatari is currently 81 tion on this occasion. While lights out and Vettel was quickly com- Verstappen raised pulses over the fi nal points clear of his nearest cham- al-Attiyah concentrates on the plaining of a lack of power. two laps but ultimately his charge was too pionship rival, Jakub Przygonski, job in hand to secure the title, The German, who fi nished fourth in little too late to prevent a fourth successive and nine points from his Mo- Overdrive Racing are runnin- Malaysia and crashed from pole in Singa- Suzuka win for Mercedes. roccan adventure would be suf- ing a further six Toyota Hiluxes pore before that, plummeted to sixth on Also in the points, Sergio Perez fi nished fi cient for him to retain his FIA for Poland’s Aron Domzala, the the fi rst lap before being told to retire the seventh for Force India ahead of the two World Cup title with a round to Dutch duo of Peter van Merk- car as Hamilton roared away into the dis- Haas cars of Kevin Magnussen and Romain spare. steijn and Bernhard Ten Brinke, tance. “It’s just a pity in the two races with Grosjean with Felipe Massa holding off Al-Attiyah won the third stage Frenchman Ronan Chabot, Dane the reliability issues,” said Vettel, who led Fernando Alonso’s McLaren to take 10th of the Morocco event yesterday Jes Munk and Chinese driver He the championship just six weeks ago. “But for Williams. and has managed to close the Zhitao. FOOTBALL Poland head to World Cup, agony for Scotland AFP to Romania ultimately rendered the Leigh Griffi ths stroked the visi- Paris Poland celebrate their outcome irrelevant. tors into a fi rst-half lead, but Slovenia qualification for the World Cup. The Danes needed to win in Copen- equalised and then went ahead as Ro- hagen while hoping that Montene- man Bezjak netted twice after coming obert Lewandowski scored a gro could upset Poland to fi nish top of on at the break. European qualifying record Group E, but Ciprian Deac’s late equal- Robert Snodgrass handed Scotland 16th goal as Poland defeated iser cancelled out a 60th-minute pen- a lifeline with an 87th-minute equal- Montenegro 4-2 yesterday to alty from Christian Eriksen. iser, but it wasn’t enough as Scotland Rreach next year’s World Cup, but Scot- However, Denmark are at least as- finished level on 18 points with Slo- land missed out on the play-off s after a sured of a place in next month’s play- vakia but behind them on goal differ- 2-2 draw in Slovenia. off s as one of the eight best runners-up ence. Bayern Munich striker Lewandowski from the nine qualifying groups. England won 1-0 away to Lithuania struck his 16th goal of the qualifying Slovakia face an anxious wait to dis- as Harry Kane scored a 27th-minute campaign as Poland recovered from cover whether they will advance to the spot-kick won by Tottenham Hotspur throwing away a two-goal lead in War- two-legged play-off s after fi nishing sec- team-mate Dele Alli. saw to secure a fi rst trip to the World ond behind England in Group F following The in-form Kane has now scored Cup fi nals since 2006. a comfortable 3-0 win over Malta. nine goals in his last fi ve matches for Krzysztof Maczynski and Kamil Adam Nemec grabbed a brace with both club and country. Grosicki struck early as Poland made a Ondrej Duda adding a third in Trnava as World champions Germany can dream start, but Montenegro hit back Slovakia extended Scotland’s 20-year round out their successful Group C through goals from Stefan Mugosa and exile from the fi nals of major tourna- campaign with a 10th straight win at Zarko Tomasevic to pull level with just ments. home to Azerbaijan in their fi nal quali- seven minutes left. Gordon Strachan’s team arrived in fi er in Kaiserslautern. Lewandowski restored Poland’s ad- Ljubljana two points clear of Slovakia Northern Ireland, second behind vantage on 85 minutes before a late own going into the fi nal round of matches, Germany in their section, head into goal from Filip Stojkovic sealed victory, but dropped to third after being held by their game against Norway in Oslo although Denmark’s 1-1 draw at home Slovenia. guaranteed a berth in the play-off s. Gulf Times 2 Monday, October 9, 2017 FOOTBALL QSL CUP Qatar draw with Mexico Kiberkanine treble in under-23 friendly sinks Al Khor Gharafa defeat Al Duhail 1-0, while Qatar SC and Al Sailiya play out a 3-3 draw Qatar's national Olympic team played out a 2-2 draw against Mexico yesterday in a friendly match at Al Sadd Club's Jassim bin Hamad Stadium.